Angelenos’ Utopia

What is your favorite childhood memory of building a shelter? Was it a fort, up in a tree, out in nature? That is where we started with a workshop to talk about housing and intentional community on July 27th. The participants bypassed the usual small talk to share their memories and parts of themselves. Urban planner and activist James Rojas led the workshop, organized by At Home, LATCH Collective, and L.A. Eco-Village to invite members to talk about alternative types of housing. James is an urban planner, community activist, and artist. He developed this method to make planning visual, tactile and meaningful. Through this method, he has engaged thousands of people by facilitating hundreds of workshops and building over fifty interactive models around the world. (Read more about James and the awesome Place It workshops)

The workshop was titled “Place It: community visioning workshop,” and was held on a newly-purchased property next to LA Eco-village in Koreatown, Los Angeles, in a former auto shop building. Participants took seats in the tall-ceilinged space, amid the auto lifts and tables strewn with colorful objects. James invited participants to re-envision their neighborhoods through storytelling, objects, art-making and play. By using these methods, people could investigate attachments to place and shelter by thinking beyond words by building models to express ideas about home.

Visions of Utopia

The ideal communities created with the objects in the workshop had trees, nature, bridges, ponds, waterfalls, rivers, lakes, shared gardens, kitchens, outdoor places to play, and workshops. Places full of paths, elevation changes, children playing, green space. We could picture the sounds of people in conversation, water splashing, birds in the trees, animals roaming around.

I was struck by how beautiful these models and visions of an LA could be. But also I thought of the contrast to our current build environment, full of cement, cars, and isolation. How much work we will have to do to create these places.

Upon visiting many intentional communities in Southern California, they all say “start with a vision.” I believe we took steps toward creating these visions. In this way, we will be able to start projects on the right track with a strong sense of purpose.

Members of CRSP at L.A. Eco-Village, the LATCH Collective, and At Home organized this workshop to connect interested members and move the planning process forward with hands-on workshops.

CRSP is the resource center for small ecological cooperative communities based at L.A. Eco-village, the landmark intentional community in Los Angeles from which many aspiring community-minded people learn important lessons about communication, structure, and all things community.

LATCH Collective is a member driven organization focused on co-building tiny homes in Los Angeles.

At Home is an organization dedicated to creating housing opportunities for intentional communities, through organizing, training, and outreach.

Participants were invited based on their interest in cohousing, intentional community, and tiny homes and villages. Hundreds of people in Los Angeles are interested in a different way of living. In this workshop, people were able to think about what that would look like.

This will be part of a series to further develop the visions and plans for kicking off projects in 2017.